Is my language supported?
Tinting and reading rulers work with any language, in any script: they colour the screen, not the words. Text Tools, where you dictate, spell-check, proofread and listen, works in thirteen languages. WinShades' own menus are in English.
Updated 29 September 2026, for WinShades 1.3.0
What works in each language
WinShades comes with a speech model built in, and dictation works straight away in every language here except Hindi and Bengali. The dictation figures below are for the most accurate model Text Tools offers for each language, which takes a click to install: in Text Tools, choose your language and click “Better … dictation is available”. Except for Hindi's, these models need a fast PC, ideally with a graphics card, to keep up with speech. Text Tools says so before you download one, and offers a smaller model for other PCs, a little less accurate.
| Language | Dictation: mistakes in 100 words | Spell check | Proofread |
|---|---|---|---|
| EnglishUnited States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada | About 6 | Yes | Yes |
| FrenchFrance, Canada | About 7 | Yes | Yes |
| German | About 8 | Yes | Yes |
| SpanishSpain, Mexico | About 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Italian | About 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Dutch | About 8 | Yes | Yes |
| PortuguesePortugal, Brazil | About 4 | Yes | Yes |
| Polish | About 8 | Yes | Yes |
| Russian | About 5 | Yes | Yes |
| NorwegianBokmål | About 12 | Yes | Yes |
| HindiIndia | About 15 | Yes | No |
| BengaliBangladesh | About 20 | Yes | No |
| ChineseSimplified | About 6 in 100 characters | No: Windows has no Chinese spell checker | No |
What the numbers mean
WinShades measured every speech model on real speech: 25 people reading sentences in each language, from Google's FLEURS test set. A mistake is a word wrong, missing or added, so 6 means about six words in every hundred need fixing. Chinese is counted in characters, since it is written without spaces. Your own voice, microphone and room will make a difference, so treat the figures as a guide to which model to try, not a promise.
Dictation happens on your own PC, whichever model you use. Nothing you say is sent anywhere; a model you choose to download comes from Hugging Face, where its makers publish it, and is checked before use.
Spell check, proofreading and Read Aloud
Spell check uses the dictionaries Windows installs with each language. If yours is missing, Text Tools says so and points you to Windows' language settings, rather than quietly underlining nothing.
Proofreading checks grammar, style and word choice through LanguageTool, online. It doesn't cover Hindi, Bengali or Chinese.
Read Aloud uses the voices Windows provides. You can add voices for more languages in Settings, under Time & language, Speech. Text Tools tells you when no voice on your PC can read the language you've chosen.
Language not listed?
Tinting and reading rulers will still work for you. For Text Tools, WinShades has already measured Arabic, Japanese, Indonesian and Urdu, among others, ready for when it can offer them. If you'd like your language added, email me: knowing who needs which language decides what comes next.